Hi everyone. Steve Bevis here. I’m off traveling for two weeks in Thailand and Cambodia from Sept 9 on behalf of TEAR Australia and I’m going to blog some of the inspiring moments (and probably some crazy, daft and hair raising moments too) right here on wecan.be for your blogging pleasure. First up I’ll be spending a week at an international consultation of the Micah Network. The second week I’ll be spending with Cambodian Hope Organisation on the Cambodian side of the Thai/Cambodian border. They are a group of local Cambodian Christians seeking to respond to child trafficking as well as working to support extremely vulnerable families in the town through community development activities. The town itself is called Poipet and is the only place in Sth East Asia with legal gambling. There are very few descriptions I’ve been able to find about the town. My favourite is: “The only reason you would want to go to Poipet is to leave there as soon as you possibly can.” (to go to Siem Riep I guess…). Doesn’t sound like a particularly inspiring place, but if you drop back by this blog over the next three weeks I’ll be blogging some of the things that maybe God does find inspiring about Poipet and its people. And my reason for saying God is that I’ll be trying to see the place through the eyes of local Christians and to feel the faith, hope and love they see in the slums and rural areas of this part of Cambodia. I’ll also let you know how the consultation is going (and maybe I’ll blog some pics of me, Ben Thurley & Dave Andrews (also of TEAR) in the hotel spa… Ok, Ok, maybe I’ll blog some of us sweating it out on the Hotel’s private jogging track just to show you how we are paying for our sins of the flesh……………..

Hope you can join me for the digital journey. Cheers, Steve

ps, this is a quote I just found on CHO’s website. It’s inspiring!

“Now something must be done, and somebody must do it. Thank God, His true church never sees an evil without asking the question, “Can anything be done to remove it?” One of its strong principles is that the straight way to destroy the branches is to go at the root; to deal efficiently with the effect is to do away with the cause. It is good to rescue the poor out of the gulf when they have got in, but if we can prevent them from getting in, it will be better still.”

William Booth, The Way Cry, July 11, 1885.